Missing Ryan Borgwardt: Kayaker from Watertown, Wisconsin, faked his death and left the country, the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office says

GREEN LAKE COUNTY, Wisc. — The search for a missing kayaker in Wisconsin took a dramatic turn, the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office said.

Ryan Borgwardt of Watertown went missing Aug. 12 after kayaking in Green Lake.

Responding officers recovered his capsized kayak, his car, a fishing rod, a wallet, keys and his driver's license.

The sheriff said they became suspicious after Borgwardt's name was checked by law enforcement the day after his disappearance.

“We don’t know where he is, but he’s not in our lake,” said Green Lake Sheriff Mark Podoll.

An investigation revealed that Borgwardt had a second passport, replaced the hard drive on his laptop, deleted the browser on the day of his disappearance, inquired about transferring funds to foreign banks, purchased airline gift cards and purchased $375,000 in life insurance.

The sheriff's office also revealed that he was communicating with a woman in Uzbekistan, a country in Central Asia.

Sheriff Podoll is now asking the father of three to return to his family.

“It's really difficult because, firstly, they felt that the father had drowned a day ago. They found that wasn’t the case,” Sheriff Podoll said.

Bruce's Legacy, a nonprofit that specializes in water searches, said it spent a lot of money searching for the missing husband.

“It's a little hard to digest because it took a lot of expense to do this,” said founder Keith Cormican.

Cormican spent 23 days on the water, almost half the time Borgwardt was missing.

He was there when the Borgwardt family found out about the new developments.

“They were very shocked, as you can imagine, and very heartbreaking for the family,” Cormican said.

The Green Lake Sheriff's Office will now work to identify all crimes committed and anyone who participated in those crimes.

The sheriff said they will also seek reimbursement for the taxpayer-funded costs of the search.

ABC News contributed to this report.

The CNN Wire & 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.